As my Oom (Uncle) Geel used to say to us children when we pestered him with whys: “Because, Y is a crooked letter and you can’t make it straight.”
Similarly, having our own brand and business WHY, does not mean we have a straight line to everyone in the world with a similar Why. Nor does it mean that we even end up serving people with exactly the same Why as us.
Your Why for being in business is important. Hopefully a part of that Why is to make a profit, so you can keep on offering the product or service you are offering to the market, otherwise you just have a hobby.
But something important to note is, for all the importance we place on our own Why, sometimes our customers and clients do not really care or understand our Why.
Yes, there are a few who will definitely resonate with us completely. They love the brand message, they love our commitment and our story, they love the product and the service. They are very much part of the tribe. But there are often a large number who simply use our products or our services because they fulfil their Why in a very simple and practical way, sometimes in a way we don’t even realise.
Be careful of over emphasising your own Why at the expense of a purely good, functional product and excellent service. Sometimes that is all the Why customers are looking for in a world filled with stories that don’t always have products and services that live up to the tall tale.
And, just bear in mind, Coca-Cola is such a great corrosive, some of us only buy it to unclog drains. I doubt their marketing department think that’s part of their Why.
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